Horsing Around Spring Vaccines

(Chris) Hello and welcome to Horsing Around. I’m Dr. Chris Blevins here at Kansas State University Veterinary Health Center. And today, we’re gonna talk about vaccines. As you come into the Spring season, we always have to figure out what’s the best to protect my horse from different diseases? And it’s always based on what you’re doing with your horse. I think the biggest thing is to always consult with your veterinarian to determine what the best vaccines are for your individual animal. Each horse is different, each farm is different and what you do with those horses is to protect them from diseases can be discussed with your veterinarian to figure out what the best vaccines to use. Now, if we talk about vaccines as a whole and every horse in the United States and what’s recommended for horses and vaccines, the biggest ones will be core vaccines and you can always look at those, even come through and use and discuss with your veterinarian through the AAEP.ORG website. That actually has a list of those vaccines. So, what are those vaccines for core vaccines? It would be rabies, Eastern and Western Equine Encephalomyelitis, which is your sleeping sickness type vaccines, West Nile vaccines and tetanus. So, based on those five principles of vaccines, those are which every horse in the United States should be vaccinated for and should be vaccinated prior to the mosquito season and that’s something to always remember too. When should I start vaccinating my horse in the spring? It needs to be prior to the mosquito season. So, that’s something else to remember. Again, that’s usually going to be before the April time frame, when mosquitoes will be out. So, sometime during April would be the best or ideal time, or early May to start doing those Spring vaccines for your horse. How long do vaccines last? Most of ’em are just annually, depending on if you get a wound like tetanus, it’s six months since its last vaccine, always keep that in mind and what to kind of use. The other thing is to know the difference between tetanus antitoxin and tetanus toxoid. Most of the time if you’re just boostering, it’s tetanus toxoid, versus tetanus antitoxin. Don’t over use that. There’s always issues potentially with that. Don’t use it unless needed. Talk to your veterinarian before using a tetanus antitoxin. But a lot of those vaccines, again, you can get through your veterinarian. Or you can purchase through different drug companies based on that So, that’s core vaccines, what every horse should get. And then there’s other vaccines out there, so the Rhino vaccine, influenza or flu vaccines, Strangles vaccines, Potomac Horse Fever vaccine, Venezuelan, which is sometimes in Eastern and Western Equine Encephalomyelitis. And a lot of other realms of vaccines as a potential to use. But they’re based on geographic location and risk. So, talk to your veterinarian about those vaccines. You can get a protocol set up for your horse, starting in the spring. I’m Dr. Chris Blevins at Kansas State University Veterinary Health Center with Horsing Around and we’ll see you around.